A female student has died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound after shooting and injuring another female student at a high school in the West Texas town of Alpine, the Brewster County sheriff said.

"The shooter appears to have shot herself," Brewster County Sheriff Ronny Dodson told radio station KVLF.

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Dodson said a gun was found near the suspected shooter.

The sheriff said a federal law enforcement officer was also injured during the incident, which began shortly before 9 a.m. at Alpine High School in the town of 5,900 in Texas' Big Bend region.

The officer was struck when another officer's gun accidentally discharged. Further details about the injured officer's and student's conditions were not available.

The shooting prompted a lockdown at Alpine's three public schools.

Dodson said the shooting at the high school was part of a chaotic series of events that included a bomb threat called in at nearby Sul Ross State University, which required law enforcement personnel to rush there from the high school.

"That's ridiculous for someone to call in something like this when we've got this situation going on," Dodson said. "This community does not expect this. We don't want this, and we can't explain it yet."

Alpine is 220 miles southeast of El Paso and 110 miles north of Big Bend National Park.